The Plague Journal
by Miyugi
Summary: At this time researchers have been unable to determine the fate of the people portrayed in this journal, or indeed even their full names and how they all relate to each other. They are certain however that the journal is authentic, and that it is the only first-hand account of the Necrotic Plague currently known to have survived.
1. Chapter 1

_A Note From the Publisher:_

 _The Royal University of Canada (Seattle Campus) retains the copyright and sole proprietorship of this journal, and has generously allowed it to be reprinted under the condition that it be presented in its unaltered form. At this time researchers have been unable to determine the fate of the people portrayed in this journal, or indeed even their full names and how they all relate to each other. They are certain however that the journal is authentic, and that it is the only first-hand account of the Necrotic Plague currently known to have survived._

…

March 26

Happy Birthday me! Mom really came through on the new journal this year, 500 whole pages so no more worries about running out of space!

Life's been good since my last entry, Teddy and I finally moved out of the shitty apartment and into our own house! It's a little morbid I guess, since it belonged to his grandmother that passed away a few months ago, but probably stranger for Teddy than me. I've been painting up a storm though (surprise surprise right?), and it's looking so much more open and light. I'm trying to decide whether or not to add a mural to the guest room, but that's probably a project for down the road a ways.

Business has been booming for both of us. Teddy's been promoted to Project Manager at his engineering firm, and he got to start working remotely last week! My studio is thriving, and the hill above the house has the perfect place for a real brick and mortar. There apparently used to be a general store there that burned down in the 60's, and the site has space for a big workshop with a retail space and plenty of space for the bus to be parked. You can even see it from the road, so maybe I'll start getting walk-in orders (I can wish, right?).

Speaking of, I finally converted that old school bus I bought last year. It's now the perfect "home on the road", complete with wood paneling and a deck on top for pretty nights. I had a really great Christmas season, so I was really able to go all out on the conversion too. I've got the full kitchen set up, a king sized bed, bookshelves, a workstation for Teddy to use while I'm at shows, even this wood burning stove that Teddy dug up from somewhere for when it's cold. There's also some convertible furniture that folds out into beds when I have assistants along for a show, and I scored enough solar panels to run everything and then some!

Teddy's currently muttering to himself while he clicks away at the keyboard. Apparently there's some kind of media blackout going in China, and his Anonymous buddies have taken it on themselves to break it, so he's all excited about "the challenge". Men are so strange…

Although that does remind me, the Colorado Stash is growing very nicely. Since we didn't have to use our house savings to buy a house, we managed to buy another 102 acres straight up the mountain last month, which got us up to 162 total acres now, and almost the whole mountain plus the ravine. We're thinking about building a hunting cabin up there next year if we can afford it. Nothing big, but it would be way better than living on the bus if things ever go south right?

Anyway, I think I'm going to play for awhile while Teddy's not hogging the 360.

…

April 2

So Teddy's been glued to the computer for the last few days. It's driving me crazy, but I'm also starting to get a little worried about him. He's obsessed with this media thing in China, and apparently Russia now too. The man's hardly even been interested in food, and I'm fairly sure that's one of the signs of the apocalypse! I'm going to make his favorite shepherd's pie, and unplug the damn computer if I have to…

Other than Teddy's weirdness, there's nothing much to report. Brian sprained his wrist in the studio the other day, so production has slowed a bit. Joker broke the cat tree yesterday (I guess it couldn't handle his fat little arse anymore), Batman is predictably upset at this development and keeps pouncing on his brother when I'm not looking.

Well, I'm going to go get started on that shepherd's pie.

….

April 4

Well, the shepherd's pie didn't work. He wouldn't even come out for a simple dinner. I've spent most of the last few days at the studio, I couldn't stand to be in the house with that man's muttering and clicking. I got home a little while and sure enough, he's still hard at it in his office.

I'm getting really worried about him. I'm not sure how to help him, or what to do about this situation. If he doesn't snap out of it soon, I may have to stage some kind of intervention…

Well, I think I'm going to go run a hot bath and try to calm down.

...

April 5

There's so many things I wish. I wish I'd never heard of China or Anonymous. I wish I'd hugged my mom the last time I saw her. I wish the Colorado Stash was ten times bigger. I wish I'd enjoyed my bath more last night. I wish had more than one emergency joint.

I wish I could rewind this week and spend it preparing, but how do you prepare for this?

We're going to figure out what to tell our family and friends in the morning. For now, I'm going to go drag my husband away from his thrice damned computer and try to enjoy the luxury of a bed and a full liquor cabinet while I still have it.


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N: I forgot to say it last time, but basically anything you don't recognize is mine, and anything you do belongs to AMC and Robert Kirkman. I'm just playing in their sandbox.  
_**

 ** _I also want to thank my amazing reviewers_ _BreenaBelle-xoxo and justcallmeIVY. You guys were the kick in the pants I needed to finish this chapter._**

 _..._

 _A Note From The Publisher :_

 _Researchers have determined from the inside cover of the Journal that that the full name of the individual who wrote this account was Senna Josephine Hobbes. The gentleman referred to as "Teddy" has been identified as Theodore Hobbes, and it has been concluded that the two were formally joined in the tradition of Matrimony. A practice which fell aside during the chaotic onset of the Necrotic Plague, as survivors focused less on the social formalities from their old world in the face of more basic needs such as shelter and food._

 _It is further worth noting the incredible speed with which Theodore and his compatriots in the 21st Century "Hacktivist" group, Anonymous, put together the warning signs of the coming disaster. As most can recall from school, Anonymous was the group that broke into the American government's Information networks and alerted the general populace to the existence of the Necrotic Plague. To have even a bystander's glimpse at the inner workings of the organization is a wealth of new information that has already spawned a flurry of new research into the group's influence on the early days of the Plague._

 _..._

April 6

7:20 am

So I guess I owe an explanation for yesterday's somewhat abrupt entry. But I mean can you blame me for freaking out a little? It's not every day that a girl comes face to face with the zombie apocalypse!

Hoo doggy. Never thought I'd say those words in all seriousness. Zombie apocalypse… Remember how I joked about Teddy's lack of appetite? It sounds likes some cheesy B movie or TV show or something. But I can't think of what else to call them. Although, I guess I should take a deep breath and start at the beginning. It might just be important some day to have an accurate record of how the world goes to shit.

Sorry. Anyway…

Teddy's computer mania the last few days has finally been explained. It started last week when he found out about this media blackout in China. Which didn't seem so unusual to me at the time because yeah, China. But apparently this was much more strict than usual, there had been reports of journalists rounded up and executed when a local paper printed a story about this disease. Naturally Anonymous had to investigate these rumors, so it wasn't long before they turned up a copy of the news article.

It seemed to be a joke at first. The article talked about people who fell ill with a new disease with flu-like symptoms and went into a strange coma where they appeared dead, before waking up and viciously attacking the people around them. After a period of time, the people who were attacked became ill and the cycle repeated. There was even mention of an entire hospital under quarantine. Nobody really took the whole thing seriously at first, because come on, mutant violent zombie virus? Obviously it had to be a scam.

A few days later though another story surfaced, this one from a journalist in Beijing with enough internet know-how to upload his data to 4chan. He had voice recordings of dozens of eye witness accounts, and one short 6 second video clip showing a man getting shot repeatedly in the chest before stumbling forward and biting a police officer's throat out. It only took a few hours after this news to isolate a similar news blackout going on in Russia.

By the end of the day, Teddy and his buddies had managed to uncover almost a dozen video clips and audio recordings from across Asia. China, Russia, and North Korea are all violently suppressing this news. There have been a terrifying number of reports that those governments are cracking down hard on journalists of all sorts, and even a whisper that someone reporting something they shouldn't have resulted in a public mass execution in China.

Two days later the news blackout had spread through Africa and the Middle East, and there were troubling reports coming from Asia. The blackout in major cities like Hong Kong and Beijing quickly started to break down as the government couldn't maintain their vigilance on all of the reporters. Reports that local governments were starting to break down were quickly followed by dead silence from Beijing, even the Anonymous users who were participating in chats suddenly went offline. As this was happening, someone discovered a feed in French covering an epidemic of some new strain of flu in one of the Paris hospitals.

Shortly after, complete media silence. Other than snippets about the increasingly bad situation in Asia, and a few tidbits coming in from the Middle East, nothing more was forthcoming for almost a full day. Then suddenly, a single leaked video from Australia, showing a man in a dirty basement as he dissected another man he had strapped to a metal table and who fought and growled the entire time the "autopsy" was taking place. He held up each organ to the camera as he removed them, showing that his captive's heart was not beating and that decay was already starting to take place. The entire time he was working, his patient was struggling and attempting to attack him despite all the restraints. Eventually he showed how the other man would only die if he penetrated the brain with a knife (though he said he believed a hot enough fire could also kill them). Like I said, I can't think of a better word for that than a zombie.

Then yesterday, after having who knows how many people scouring the internet, some enterprising hacker thought to check hospital records in the major US cities. He found that Baltimore, New York, Orlando, and Atlanta all had significant numbers of patients in all hospitals with a new disease that caused severe fevers and flu-like symptoms. It was completely global. That's when Teddy came and got me.

We decided that it would be best to gather all the evidence and present it to the people we care about. The Colorado Stash can support 50 people for a good 200 days, longer if we stretch it out and hunt, and I fear that safety is only going to be in numbers. The more capable people we have, and the more of our loved ones we can save, the better. We've already called Teddy's parents, and told them that there's an emergency and we need all the family they can get there by 10 am. We've also notified Richard and Patty (and they'll notify Shaun, Tara, and Cole), and Brian. Later we're going to try and talk to Mom, Scott, Irina, Michelle, and John via FaceTime and convince them to head for safety as well.

Hopefully we have enough time to prepare and gather some extra supplies. At this point we're going to need everything, and I think we should plan for the worst case scenario and assume it'll be a few years before everything settles down. So that means food, camping gear, blankets, clothes, toilet paper, medicine, whatever we can get our hands on is going to become invaluable. Thank God for the bus and Colorado, I have a feeling that they're going to be a literal lifesaver.

Well, it's getting closer to the big reveal. I better go take a shower and then use up the bacon and eggs before we get going. I'm sure I'll have a lot to write down tonight.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Author's Note: If you recognize it, it's not mine and belongs to people who make way more money than I do._**

 _ **I'd like to thank my wonderful reviewers, BreenaBelle-xoxo and justcallmeIVY. Your fast reviews to each chapter have kept me working on this story.** _

_**...**_

 _A Note From the Publisher:_

 _It has been concluded by researchers that the group of people who follow Senna and Theodore are largely his family, with some close personal friends of the couple mixed in. It's still under debate exactly who is related to whom, and how; but it is agreed by all that without more evidence nothing can be firmly decided on the issue._

 _In the beginning of this chapter you will see a reference to how "surreal" it felt to be one of the first to notice the onset of the Necrotic Plague, and how the rest of the world was still behaving as usual. This was of great interest to researchers, as none of the other surviving accounts of the early days of the Plague begin so far in advance of the actual tragedy. It has long been agreed by historians that government suppression of information, along with a drastic lack of preparedness among the general populaces are primarily to blame for the incredible death toll during the Plague, as most citizens had a distinct lack of even rudimentary weapons and survival training to aid them in the initial wave of the disease. It has also been determined from remaining documents that the "civilized" world had something of a fitness problem in general, making the population centers particularly vulnerable and ultimately culminating in the "herds" that roamed the countryside in the later days of the Plague.  
_

 _This Journal is also unique in that it's currently the only known account of the Plague from the viewpoint of what was termed a "Survivalist", or someone who prepared in varying degrees for unforeseen disasters. Often these Survivalists were considered to be mentally ill or paranoid, so many chose to keep their preparations secret until there was a need for their activities to come to light. According to what Internet data was salvaged by researchers since the Plague a Survivalist could have preparations ranging from elaborate self-sustaining underground compounds able to house hundreds, to a simple "bug out" bag with enough food rations to sustain a single person for a week or so. While many Survivalist communities are known to still exist as City-States, none have ever allowed their records of the Necrotic Plague to leave their hands, making Senna's Journal a source of new data on the founding of these communities._

 _..._

April 7

10:46 am

Okay, so there's a lot to cover since yesterday morning. So much has gone on in the last 24 hours, it's been a real whirlwind. As I write this, I'm sitting in the passenger seat of the bus while Teddy drives us through our hometown. It feels really odd to think that I may not see it again for a few years, depending on just how badly local governments fall apart in the coming madness. I can see one of my high school teachers in the parking lot of the Dollar General, leaning on a car and talking to someone. It's just every-day life going on all around us, and here we are preparing for the coming zombie apocalypse. It's enough to make me question all of this yet again, moving into the wilderness seems really drastic when confronted with all this normalcy.

But it's coming, there's simply too much evidence to really convince myself it's a hoax at this point. Even if things don't get so bad here as it has in Asia and Eastern Europe, everything we've seen is pointing to the conclusion that population centers are going to be hit the hardest. Even if total government collapse doesn't happen, looting and violence are going to be real problems and food will run short very quickly. Better to head for less populated ground where we have enough food stockpiled to keep us all going for a few months. With any luck we don't have to suffer more than one winter in the mountains before this thing is contained.

We're onto the interstate now, with our 26 hour drive stretching ahead of us, so I guess I'll take the chance to log down the events of the last few days and then I'll get some shut eye before it's my turn to drive. Seeing as it's been about 27 hours since I was last asleep (and since I… distracted… Teddy most of that night, it was only a few hours) you'd think I'd already be out cold, but I'm too worked up to sleep right now. Hopefully writing this entry will calm me down.

So when we got to Becka and William's place yesterday, we discovered they'd been incredibly efficient at gathering the family together. Jared and Gertie were there when we arrived at about 9:30 along with James, Stephanie, and the girls; Kyle and Petra arrived about five minutes after us with Grandma in tow and Kate, Sam (and his current girl Jenna), and Bobby were right behind them. At 10 on the nose Richard and Patty drove up with Tara, Cole, Shaun, and surprisingly Leah and her mother in tow. Brian rolled in with little Robbie shortly after, and the time had come.

After getting the kids settled in one of the bedrooms with _Finding Nemo_ and some toys, Teddy and I were left with the extremely uncomfortable duty of explaining just why we'd had everyone call off work for this unspecified "emergency". They (predictably) thought we were having them on at first, until Teddy hooked the laptop up to his Dad's prized 55" and started showing them the files and videos he'd found online. There was lots of crying and freaking out, which I can't really blame anyone for, seeing as my reaction was to freak for an hour before dragging Teddy to bed for hours for some really great "we're all gonna die" sex.

Ahem.

Thank God for Richard, who channeled his inner Indiana to calm everyone down and get them focused again with a minimum of panic. Who'd guess that the College Algebra Professor was the one to have by your side in the zombie apocalypse? He started asking where would be safest to go, and got the discussion going on how to prepare before things got bad in the US. That gave Teddy and I the opening to tell everyone about the survival stash hidden on the acreage we have in Colorado. We got a few interesting looks at that, I've got to say, but nobody said anything about our (deeply hidden) survival hoarding. We've always hidden the fact that we were "survivalist nuts" around our family and friends, not wanting to open ourselves up to the inevitable jokes about tinfoil hats and the end of days. I guess it is kind of hard to find that sort of thing funny when you've just found out that the zombie apocalypse is really a thing that's happening.

Anyway, this opened the floor up for debate. Several people brought up how far away Colorado is, as well as the fact that we only have one big warehouse style building and the bus, when there's actual houses and beds here. Good points were made for staying, but they couldn't hold up when we spelled out exactly what even minor governmental collapse on a local scale would mean for the citizens. Looting, violence, and rioting would abound as food ran short. Since it's unlikely the people who keep the power grid will have uninterrupted work attendance in the coming weeks and months, loss of power and running water will mean that people become even more desperate and start looting homes further and further away from town. For all that this area seems really rural, there's actually a lot of people who live in a very small area, and we're right off the main road. Living as we do (or did), with most of the family very close, would offer some protection in the beginning, but it wouldn't be long before people who outnumbered us and weren't afraid to hurt others came along. Plus we have the means to collect some minor solar, wind, and hydraulic power at the Stash, meaning we'll have at least some comforts.

Then there's the Bluegrass Army Depot only 2 miles away, which is nothing I want to be near during a time of global unrest. The Depot is where a good percentage of our country's decaying nuclear weapon stockpile is housed, and there's been more than a few incidents in the last several years where some of the older canisters of nerve gas have leaked and caused minor evacuations. If the power goes down, not only will we have to worry about the increased chance of leakages and decaying weapons systems, but we'll have to worry about the unrest spreading and militant rioters getting their hands on the kind of weapons kept on base. By getting far away, we'll at least rid ourselves of that significant risk.

Even with all of our arguments for going, it wasn't unanimous. Kate, Sam, and Jenna decided that they weren't going to leave the area because of Jenna's family and Kate's fiancé. They headed out to start fortifying Kate's farm while the rest of us set about dismantling our lives and stripping our houses of anything that could be the least bit useful at the end of the world. We sent Becka, Gertie, Stephanie, Patty, and Trudy (with Teddy and Kyle as protection) into town in two cars to get as much cash as possible for the trip and then to purchase as many food and clothing essentials as their cards would allow. While they were gone, the rest of us decided on some guidelines about what to bring (each individual was allowed one suitcase of personal non-clothing items), had a very spirited debate on the bringing of cats and dogs (they're coming), then split up to our respective homes to start packing things.

Somewhere in all of this Becka and I managed to FaceTime Michelle and John in Florida, and my mother and brother in Tennessee (we managed to get them all online at the same time, which was chaotic but probably saved a lot of time). Michelle and John believed us almost immediately, John said he had heard some very unsettling things at the hospital lately from other doctors, and this made sense of a lot of it. It took a little longer with my brother, but eventually even Major Smith couldn't stand against all the evidence we have compiled to this point. Scott and Irina are going to get Mom, and they're hoping to convince Aunt Leona and Uncle Tim, along with Chad, Tiffany, and Bear Trap; then head for Colorado from there. John and Michelle are going to gather the kids and leave as soon as possible, since they have the furthest of any of us to travel. Logging off from that conversation was hard, I just hope they all make it before things get too bad.

It was decided that we'd load the bus as full as possible (we're about 600 lbs over the weight recommendations for the poor engine) and then load whatever else we could in the other five vehicles. After a short break during which we had to send William and Jared with two more cars to help bring back the awe inspiring haul our shopping team bought (I'm pretty sure they bought up all the wearable clothes at Goodwill), we gathered all of our supplies together and started dividing them up. We also ran about a million loads of laundry (we had every washer/dryer on the street going full tilt all day), because who knows when clean clothes will happen again…

We started out by cramming six Queen mattresses onto the bus, then followed them up with most of the suitcases and an insane amount of clothes, blankets, pillows, towels, and other assorted cloth items (all I can say is, whoever invented those storage bags that let you use your vacuum to suck all the air out of pillows and blankets and stuff is a genius), all manner of camping gear and collapsible chairs, boxes of tools, and an incredible assortment of other items. I know there are a couple boxes of medical supplies, along with canning supplies, cooking implements, dishes, and a whole _case_ of mega toilet paper rolls that Becka apparently scored at the Bargain Hunt. I think I even saw a dehydrator and some extra saddles getting loaded at one point.

We also have the two dogs and four cats that are coming along for the end of the world onboard. Teddy and I weren't about to leave Batman and Joker behind, and once we explained that we'd set aside a couple years' worth of dog and cat kibble, the argument that had sprung up over Lily, Rose, and Daisy refusing to leave their cat Dumbledore settled down. I noticed it didn't take William very long after that revelation to track down Becka's barn cat Evil. We've also got Grandma's seeing-eye dog Buster and Kyle's hunting dog Jackrabbit on board, neither of whom is very fond of their crates if the whining is anything to go by.

Some vehicles were set aside for specific purposes, such as William's truck which is pulling the horse trailer (complete with our two horses, Dolly and Arrow, their gear, and 6 bales of hay) plus has the bed loaded down with a couple big bags of feed, some spare fuel canisters that we filled on the way out of town, and 4 suitcases that we managed to cram in it. William's alternating driving with Jared, while Gertie has the whole back of the cab to stretch out in. Hopefully it makes this long ride easier for her; I know that sitting in a car really takes it out of her hips over time.

James' truck is the fuel truck. One of the miraculous things our shoppers came back with was forty 10-gallon metal fuel tanks. We fit ten of them into William's truck, the rest are filled and in the bed of James' truck. We filled in the spare space with a bunch of camping and hunting gear, then James loaded his girls and Stephanie into the cab and filled any pockets of space under their feet with as many of the things three growing girls "absolutely _have_ to have" as he could.

Patty and Richard are in her fancy new Highlander with Tara and Cole. That's where most of our bottled water is, along with several additional boxes of medical supplies and textbooks that Cole managed to knick from the hospital. He even managed to get his hands on some big supply bottles of antibiotics, which is going to be a literal lifesaver at some point. Antibiotics were one of the few things that Teddy and I couldn't stockpile ANY of. They also have some extra luxury items; like the instruments of anyone who plays something portable, the old hand-crank gramophone that belonged to Richard's father (boo yah for some non-electric music!), and a whole mess of textbooks and references that Richard "borrowed" from the university library this morning.

Brian's driving Teddy's Subaru with his daughter Roberta, Shaun, and Leah. We mostly loaded it down with kid stuff like pack n' plays, crib mattresses, and two disassembled high chairs. We were able to tie the last two suitcases to the travel bars on top, along with a couple military duffels with tents and camp chairs. There's also a couple boxes of liquor crammed in the back, but I swore to Teddy I wouldn't mention that where his mother could hear. Like that's gonna matter when we get to Colorado and have to start rationing all supplies. I bet the first thing she sees is the cigarettes, liquor, and MJ that we've already stockpiled there.

Becka's 4Runner is mostly full of people. Becka, Kyle, Grandma, and Leah's mother Trudy are riding together. I guess it took the car full of grandparents to think of the numerous kids we have with us. I thought to grab some extra books to add to the ones at the Stash so they don't grow up illiterate, but they loaded every spare inch of space with toys, every kid's book they could get their hands on, board games, coloring books, the whole nine yards. I'm pretty sure Becka at least bought a bunch of candy (when we stop for gas, I'm going to load up my own chocolate stash), and when I looked in on Grandma before we all headed out I noticed that she could barely move for all the bags of crayons and markers! Teddy and I insisted on taking some of those onto the bus to free up some more space for them. It made me cry to see Grandma sitting there surrounded by all the little things for the kids that she knew weren't really _necessary,_ so she and Trudy were both willing to ride 26 hours with barely enough room to sit, just so they didn't take up essential space with something so "silly". It was maybe 20 extra pounds for us to stuff on the bus (stuff is the right word too, we had to wedge the bags in the "V" spaces between the dog crates).

Stuff like that really brings home for me just how vulnerable most of our group is. Of the twenty-three people we have leaving Kentucky four are kids, and three are elderly. Of the remaining sixteen, only seven of us are younger than 40 (and James and Stephanie only barely that). There's a lot to be said for life experience, but there's also a lot to be said for strong backs and more abundant energy. I worry that we're going to really feel the lack of the second. Grandma and Gertie can barely walk across the front yard without a steadying arm to lean on, and Jared's getting to where he has difficulty breathing if he does too much, not that that ever stops him. I guess that means we have our babysitters locked down at least, and I'm sure there will be more tasks come up that don't require physical strength.

Well, we're almost a hundred miles into this scary new adventure, and I think I can finally catch a nap before I have to drive. I feel a little like that one news reporter during the Cold War that they made a movie about a few years ago, the way he always signed off.

"Good night, and good luck" indeed.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Disclaimer: If you see something you recognize, it's not mine. I'm just borrowing it, and no money is being made. (Seriously, none.)_**

 ** _Author's Note ~ I'm super thrilled with the positive response to this journal. It really gives me a kick in the work ethic when I see that people have reviewed or followed this story._**

 _ **Sorry it took a little longer than last time. This one was slow going for some reason.** _

_..._

 _A Note From The Publisher :_

 _It is interesting to note that with the dissemination of information by the organization Anonymous, the United States' government went almost silent on a national level. On the state level there was response from their limited Citizen Militia directed by their Governors, as well as organizations devoted to human aid, that worked to set up medical stations and civilian shelter camps. This silence from the top levels of the American Military and government has been a subject of scholarly debate and conjecture for well over a century. There has long been rumor and supposition that the seeds of the American Empire were already present, and that the silence was designed to hide a coup as the country faced collapse. Certainly future Emperor Addison McConnell was one of the few officials that survived the dramatic onset of the Plague, as were his director of staff Rafael Cruz and his Chosen Heir, Paul Ryan. It was recorded that the American President and his Cabinet of Advisors were not heard from publicly at any point after news of the virus was made public, leading many to suspect foul play. Detractors to this theory point out that it's far more likely most government officials either perished with their staff trying to escape the District of Columbia, or with the assistance of their security services made it back to their families and shared the fates of the rest of the citizenry. Without first-hand accounts there's no way to discern the truth of this matter, and the Imperial Library has long been closed to any but top-clearance Imperial officials and scholars, so any surviving accounts they might possess are considered as good as lost.  
_

April 7

7:20 pm

We've stopped for gas in a little town east of St. Louis called Richview. We technically had another 100 miles or so before we needed to refill, but we (thankfully!) decided to be cautious just in case. We'd just finished buying enough energy drinks, sodas, snack food, and bad gas station food to last everyone awhile when the news hit that Anonymous had hacked most of the major news networks; they're broadcasting news of the global "outbreak" and showing some truly graphic videos taken in Atlanta of riots and fire and people eating people in the streets. They're definitely stressing the collapse we saw in Asia. I have to commend them, the people need to know, but at the same time this is definitely going to make our own journey much more difficult.

I'm looking out the window of the bus now while Teddy finishes filling it up, and cars have already started to flood in. I guess nobody wants to be caught on half a tank. There's a already massive difference in the way people are moving and interacting compared to just 20 minutes ago when you could see parents and kids stretching their legs and buying candy (what was left of it after our crew descended on the candy aisle). Mothers are taking their kids in to join the line for the bathroom, and then dragging them straight back to the cars while their husbands pump the gas. I can also see people clearing the aisles and refrigerators of food and drinks, and I'm incredibly thankful that we had already taken care of snacks and beverages before the news broke. I don't think we would have stuck around to wait for something as inconsequential as snacks, especially with cars full of increasingly valuable resources, and I'm savoring every nibble of my Hershey bar right now.

We're getting off the interstates before the inevitable flood of people out of St. Louis starts. We're going to take Route 51 north to Hwy 16 so we can avoid the city, and hope that we don't have to switch to back roads. Richard suggested that we get someone licensed to carry a gun in each car as protection, which was quickly seconded. Nobody in Patty's Highlander has a license (and we want to avoid any police confrontation possible), so Kyle and Cole switched places. A decision which I think has Tara particularly unhappy since she's not exactly comfortable around "rednecks", and Kyle's about as stereotypical as you can get from his mullet to his beer gut to his ratty old army boots. But she'll have to get used to him eventually, and other than being lazy and uninterested in anything outside of beer or taking apart cars, he's a decent enough sort. Definitely rough around the edges, but he's physically strong and very family motivated, and we'll probably need his expertise to keep any cars or power tools running for as long as we need them to. I suspect that none of these vehicles is likely to be treated nicely, especially once we get started on building up the defenses around the warehouse and immediate land.

One sec, we're heading out and I'm on map duty.

Okay, we're on Route 51 now and should be for awhile.

I'm getting pretty concerned about our general safety as we travel further. I can't help but assume we're going to hit more trouble now that the cat's out of the bag. We should probably avoid even small cities and major towns for now and stick to the state highways. It'll add about 5 hours to the trip, but I can't shake the feeling that any kind population center is the last place we want to be. Teddy agrees, he thinks riots will be starting very quickly and that we'd just risk the group being separated if we got in the middle of anything. Especially with how many supplies we're all carrying, we're going to stick out like a sore thumb to panicking citizens.

We had a group meeting at the gas station earlier. We've now decided to start cell phone check-ins every 30 minutes. Since the bus is on point in this little convoy (and Teddy and I are the only ones with any idea where we're going), we're the touchstone. All the other cars will call us for check-in, and if any plans change we'll notify any cars that need updated. We're also in charge of route, though if we think major route changes need to be made we'll notify the group to pull over and discuss it.

It was also decided to keep a few people surfing the news and internet, as well as having different radio stations assigned to different cars, so Tara and Cole have been put in charge of media. They gave each vehicle a radio station to tune into as we drive, and will coordinate with each car to get updates every few hours, so that they can then call us with any relevant local tidbits that they think could be remotely important. Everyone knows to call Tara with any immediate information that seems like it could be urgent or affect the group's route, and she'll then pass that info along to Teddy and I so we can find a safe place to pull over and discuss our options.

Well, I'm going to break some traffic laws and spread our maps out on the floor behind our seats to try and plan our new route with as few towns as possible. I'll update if anything significant happens.

….

April 8

1:45 am

I am so glad we avoided St. Louis. The local radio stations are full of reports of bumper-to-bumper traffic clogging every major road around the city, along with Teddy's expected outburst of rioting and looting. We're definitely feeling more confident in our proposal to keep everyone away from population centers. The downside is that in order to avoid any kind of city, we have to traverse a rabbit's warren of little state highways, which is adding a lot of time and running through the gas.

We just stopped in Centralia, MO to refuel. There was a sign on the pumps that said "Due to the increased demand for gasoline, there is now a 20 gallon per vehicle limit. We apologize for the inconvenience". Thankfully the old man who runs the station was kind enough to allow the extra gas from the vehicles with tanks smaller than 20 gallons to be pumped into the bus. With all this extra weight, we're really eating fuel. I think our current MPG is somewhere around 8.5, which is terrible even for this old heap of metal. I have a feeling we're going to see a lot more of these signs too…

We're heading west on state Hwy 22 right now. We'll take that over to Route 36, which we can hopefully take all the way to Colorado. We'll get off before we get too close to Denver and then plot a way around from there when we know the local conditions better.

I talked to Mom a little while ago. Scott was currently driving her and Irina, and leading their own little convoy. Apparently Bear Trap just bought a flat bed, and they thought it would be useful, so Leona and Tim are driving it while Bear Trap and Tiffany alternate driving Leona's car, as they decided it was safer for Chad to be in a faster car if they ran into any trouble. They even got Scott's dad and his current wife to come, which could prove interesting. I'm sure mom's thrilled. Although they did manage to share custody of my loving brother for 40 years without killing each other every few years at family events, so who knows. The zombie apocalypse doesn't really seem like the time to get hung up on things like old failed marriages after all.

Anyway, they got stuck for almost 4 hours in the chaos outside of Nashville. Mom said there were military helicopters flying over the city and reports of rioting and shootings on I40. My brilliant older brother managed to force his way out of the traffic using the brute strength of his truck and Bear Trap's flatbed to get their group onto the shoulder. They were headed south when I talked to them, looking for a way away from the city before they start trying to fix their course. Mom said they'd call again around noon with an update, so I'm trying not to worry too much about them.

Hang on, it's time for everyone to check in.

Well Shit.

Shit Shitedy Shit Shit.

Stephanie has started coughing, sneezing, and running a fever. Apparently this started a few hours ago, but she tried dismissing it at first.

All I can think of are those first few reports from China and Russia. It always started with the fever and flu-like symptoms.

We pulled over after I got the call and the group decided to quarantine her in the bed of James's truck because of its bed cover. We spent over an hour swapping out the fuel to other vehicles to make room for a bed of several thick blankets over hay. We lined it with cushions and put a little cooler with water, food, chips, and an assortment of cold medicines and remedies. She'll ride like that and we'll pull over once an hour to have someone check on her. Not like any of this will do any good, we've all been exposed to her. Plus we have no idea where she possibly could have picked this up, so who knows how many of us were exposed to the person who gave this to her. Unless it's airborne, isn't that a lovely thought?

God, there's just this horrible sick mix of fear and guilt in the pit of my stomach. Like I should have seen this coming and found a way to keep everyone safe. I wonder what those girls would do without their mother, how James would cope without his wife. He's not exactly a hands on father. But that's defeatist thinking, especially since we have no proof that it's the zombie virus right now, so for all we know it's something she picked up from one of the girls.

Perhaps it's just a minor cold that she was already developing, and these precautions will be for nothing. Just because its better safe than sorry doesn't mean Steph is automatically doomed to die. She was barely sniffling after all, and the fever was reasonably mild at 100.1. We'll just have to check on her and see.

Well it's almost 3 now, so I'm going to try to nap until 7 when I switch out with Teddy for my turn behind the wheel. I may even waste some of my iPod battery and listen to some music. Goodness knows I could use the distraction.

Sweet Dreams, right?


	5. Chapter 5

**_Author's Note : As usual, I don't own Walking Dead and anything you recognize doesn't belong to me._**

 ** _So I'm trying to decide if I want to keep posting shorter chapters every day or two, or if I want to post longer chapters with multiple entries once a week. What do you guys think?_**

 _ **Thank you to my lovely reviewers who are so far sticking with me and our intrepid survivalists on this adventure! You guys brighten my days.** _

_..._

 _A Note From The Publisher :_

 _The rapid response from Senna and her group to changing conditions is, according to historians and social researchers, the basis of their success as they navigated their way across what is now the American Empire, the Free Coalition of American City-States, and what is known simply as the "Western Wilderness" on our maps. The Necrotic Plague caused rapid deterioration of social structures, and the lack of preparedness and foresight on the part of local officials caused unspeakable losses as citizens were encouraged to travel to "refugee camps" and "safe zones" outside of major cities. Inevitably, as the citizenry was largely unable to protect themselves or even provide toward their own protection, this led to the camps being overrun. As new evidence has come to light, historians have determined that often the citizens who came to these safe zones were already infected either with the viral form of the Plague, or with bites concealed from fear and a lack of understanding for the dangers involved. The infected individual would perish and infect dozens more before a response was organized, and ultimately a "herd" would rapidly form and the camp would fall.  
_

 _Of citizens who avoided the camps many perished from the Reanimated, millions committed suicide, and millions more starved as they huddled in their homes in fear or were murdered for their possessions. Researchers believe that only between 10-15 million citizens of the United States survived the initial carnage in the first few months of the Plague, a mere shadow of it's once staggering population of 320 million. Of those who survived the onslaught many more perished from the terrible conditions of a life spent looking for a safe haven, or killed each other out in turf wars. Tens of thousands are suspected to be the victims of cannibalism and the slave trade that rapidly developed in the more rural areas of the nation, a number which is in constant debate as more abandoned townships are discovered and excavated. Overall it is believed that by the second year after the onset of the Necrotic Plague, a mere 1,800,000 citizens were left alive across the expanse of the once great nation called America, scavenging their way through the leftovers of their civilization until they either joined one of the fledgling city states or perished._

 _..._

April 8

12:45pm

Okay, Teddy just took over driving, thank goodness. The last few hours have been a total shit storm, and I'm about ready to curl in a ball and lose it. We stopped for gas around 11 I guess, and we definitely got our first (and I highly doubt last) taste of violence in this whole mess. We should have been more careful I guess, especially now that the zombie cat's well and truly out of the bag. I mean we already knew that gas rations were being enforced at just about every gas station we've passed, and we should've expected things to get more tense the further we got on this lovely little road trip. Especially as we've been watching gas prices climb steadily since the news hit yesterday.

Anyway we stopped for gas at this little two pump station that boasted the moderate price of $20 per gallon (never thought I'd remember $5.25 fondly), and were only able to fill two cars and add 30 gallons to the bus's tank before I guess someone spotted our extra fuel canisters. This old man came running out of the building screaming at us about "stealing" and "taking honest people's supplies", and pulled a gun on Teddy. He was ranting and demanding that we give him as much gas as we'd pumped or he'd "kill all us thieving scum" where we stood because "the damn cops are too busy to worry about strangers passing through". Richard proved yet again that he's worth his weight in gold when he talked the crazy old man down and "compromised" by offering to pay double the price for what we had already pumped. Needless to say we got out of there in a hurry after that, and didn't stop again until we found one of those scenic overlooks with some picnic tables where we could all park, fill the vehicles that didn't get gas at crazytown, and have a quick lunch while we talked about our options and how to proceed.

The group decided that we aren't going to stop again if we can avoid it. Obviously we'll have to make short pauses to fill up the tanks now and then, which we'll do from what we brought with us, plus we still have to check on Stephanie periodically. I don't think anyone wants to risk another scene like the last one, or possibly worse. The farther we go, the more and more obvious it is that strangers aren't very welcome right now, and we can't afford to get caught up in some supply war or local riot. Especially not with Steph sick like she is, that might just START a riot. We're sticking almost exclusively to the back roads now, except for where the state highways are the only option going at all in the right direction, which is adding a lot of time and miles. If we aren't careful, we may run out of the gas we brought with us, and I don't know how much longer things like gas stations are even going to be open at all.

Thank God we thought to have everyone hit their ATM machines for as much cash as they could get when we left home, every place we pass that's still open has signs up announcing "NO CREDIT CARDS" and "CASH ONLY". I don't think we would have escaped the gas station situation without injury or loss of property had it not been for our ready supply of cash. Which granted is dwindling rapidly, but who knows how relevant that's going to be in the upcoming months anyway as people start to care more about the basics like food and clean water than slips of paper or possession laws. What little news we managed to get online this morning before the 3G went down suggested that things are deteriorating far faster than I could have imagined in my worst nightmare. Major cities around the world have gone silent, there are reports of a military base in the U.K. being overrun by the dead, and nobody's heard anything from Asia or Africa practically since the time we started this lovely little adventure.

On that note, it's not just the 3G that's going down. It's becoming almost impossible to get any kind of call through, you have to dial and hang up, dial and hang up, and even then you're not guaranteed to get through. We've also started hearing automated messages on the radio, alternately advising us to "shelter in place" or "proceed to the nearest community shelter" instead of regular broadcasting.

I did finally have some contact with Mom though. They're currently stuck in some town called Poplar Bluff in Missouri, where a refugee center has been set up. The National Guard doesn't want them to leave town, but my brother has apparently put on his "Major Smith" hat and is meeting with their commander. She said he's been trying to get the various soldiers to understand that their group already has a safe zone that they're trying to reach, until the soldiers finally took him to their commanding officer. She also mentioned that she noticed a medical hub as they drove into town, and that there were so many sick people the medical staff were being forced to treat them on the sidewalks, which struck me as being almost as sad as it was terrifying. It's morbid, but I wonder how many people are going to die from this disease, and how many more from the rioting and insanity that's going on in most cities and larger towns?

They're going to try to call us when they get out of Poplar Bluff and give us an update, which hopefully doesn't take too long, although Mom mentioned that it took her over an hour of trying to get through this last time. I'm very afraid that she won't be able to get through again, but I know they've got good maps and plenty of fuel of their own, plus Major Smith to get them through. Of the many concerns I have for that branch of our group, lack of experienced leadership is thankfully not one of them. If anyone can manage to wrangle a civilian convoy across the country through the onset of the zombie apocalypse, it's my brother.

Not that our outlook is all that much better than Mom's. Steph is getting sicker every time we stop to check on her, her fever has spiked up to 103.2, and she was barely conscious when we last looked in on her. We wrapped some of the cool packs from the coolers in towels and packed them around her, which hopefully helps bring down her fever. I don't know what we're going to do if she's been infected with this new zombie virus. What if she turns into one of those dead things we saw dissected by that nut in Australia? What if she attacks someone like the people we've seen in Teddy's internet clips?

But at the same time, we can't just abandon her to die in a ditch because we're afraid of the uncertainty. Maybe zombification only happens if you don't beat this virus, and if you can survive it you're immune. Like chicken pox. So all we can do is try to keep her comfortable and do everything we can to break her fever. We've started Steph on a round of antibiotics in addition to the fever reducers that we're alternating every 2 hours (acetaminophen and ibuprofen). We've also looked through the medical books Cole brought with him and tried what we could, but he's only a lab tech and none of the rest of us knows much about medicine, so for the most part we're just making it up as we go. Makes me wish we had John with us already, but they're currently still in Florida.

Which brings me to a whole new set of worries. Michelle managed to get a call through maybe an hour after Mom did, and she informed us that John had decided it was worth the risk to make a run for some of the equipment and medicines he has access to at the hospital. She hasn't heard from him since he left the house late yesterday morning, and is naturally frantic with worry. At the same time, the situation in Gainesville is only getting worse, and the rioting in the city was already starting to hit the suburbs when she called. Michelle, Teddy, and I agreed that if he's not back by dusk she'll go ahead and get the kids out of the city and try to head northwest on the back roads.

I hate that there's only room for the two of us in the bus and that we can't include others in these decisions while they're happening, it makes me feel like we're taking control of too much but what can we do? When Michelle called, Teddy and I were the only ones available to talk, and since we were passing through a fairly populated area we decided it was too much of a risk to stop the whole convoy. So with no chance to have a group discussion about the new development, and no way to get a call through before we lost the connection, that meant that Teddy and I were all the help that was available to her at the moment.

I just hope that our mountain is remote enough. The land is on the far side of the Raggeds Wilderness, and shares its longest border with the protected mountains where no civilian construction was allowed to happen. On the other side, our closest neighbors are almost 5 miles away, although Hwy 133 runs only 4 miles west of our land. The closest town is a little mining town called Marble, which has somewhere around 160 residents, and that's 38 miles of winding mountain back-roads away. There's also a resort town called Crested Butte about 50 miles away, of which I have no idea about the population size. Hopefully with such low local population density there won't be any cases of the zombie disease in our area, though I'm unwilling to be too optimistic right now. What really worries me is that I doubt it will take long for people to flee from Denver and Colorado Springs, and when that happens how long until we have people trying to take our resources? Even the mountains won't be able to hide us forever.

I also wish there was something more impressive than our big metal warehouse for everyone to arrive to. Admittedly, we've stockpiled a lot of food and necessities in the "hidden" basement (I refuse, no matter what Teddy says, to call it the "Apocalyptic Bat Cave"), but I know it won't be anything like what our group is used to. Lack of privacy is going to be a thing, as well as the rationing of heat and food. Teddy added a huge stone fireplace along one side shortly after the building was built, and it's got the hookups for the bus, along with a rainwater collection system for things like showers and cleaning, and a drainage system for waste water that leads out to the ravine. We do have the means to generate a little power there, probably enough to cook at least one hot meal per day and keep important things going, like the freezer in warm weather and the heater when the fireplace won't cut it. But it's still going to be cold and drafty, and extremely open without many comforts, and that's in the summer time. We're going to have to do a lot of work to it if we want to survive next winter in there, and I have a feeling that building supplies aren't exactly going to be as easy as running to the nearest Lowe's.

I guess I shouldn't worry about the trivial things, and should just be happy we have somewhere relatively safe to go right now. I suppose I can't get the "hardcore" survivalists out of my heads, with their underground houses and fully furnished bunkers that hold every comfort of home and enough food for 10 years. Envy always has been my guiding sin really. I always seem to want what I don't have, but I know that we're going to face a food shortage very quickly despite our preparations, especially with as many people as we have. It leaves me wishing that we had some well-stocked secret bunker to flee to, instead of a cold and drafty metal building filled with rice and beans. Plus the warehouse, for all its isolation, is not at all what you could call defensible right now without as much as a chain link fence around it. Although, I guess that's something we'll have to deal with once we actually manage to get there, seeing as we seem to have our hands full just trying to get across the country.

Hang on, James's truck just pulled out of the line and onto the shoulder. Teddy's stopping the bus, I'll write again with an update after we see what's going on.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note ~ As usual, nothing you recognize is mine, and no money is being made.**_

 _ **A wonderful thank-you to all of those who are sticking with me on this story. I'm sorry, I know it's been a little while longer than anticipated for this chapter, but I hope you all think it was worth the wait!**_

 _ **I also did a little work to the older chapters. Nothing major was changed, just some extra details added in to clarify certain things; chapter 5 was reformatted as well, but the plot didn't change. I also decided to add the "Note From The Publisher" at the start of each chapter to give you all an idea of the culture that's looking back on this Journal, and I hope you all like the glimpses into their future.**_

 _..._

 _A Note From The Publisher :_

 _As far as researchers can determine, the warning from the organization Anonymous came far too late. Many communities were taken by complete surprise, and entire cities and towns fell in a span of hours as citizens continued about their normal business and were turned or exposed to the virus. It is suspected by researchers that approximately half of all population centers with more than 5,000 residents were infected by the time the information was released. With the announcement came widespread panic and travel, as individuals attempted to reach loved ones in other areas, which is widely believed to have accelerated the spread of the Plague. So-called "tourist destinations" were especially hard hit, as their visitors had often been exposed elsewhere in the world before journeying on, thus serving as perfect conduits for the virus. Once the infection began to spread in a location, it was only a matter of days before the rest of the population was exposed or attacked by one of the Reanimated, and the area would be overrun._

 _Senna's account is one of the first that historians have seen to discuss the impact in a thriving public space, especially one in the western part of the continent. We have had many first-hand accounts passed down verbally from those who survived the terror at "Disney World", but never one from the area that became the Western Wilderness. Perhaps what has most interested researchers is the reaction Senna had to taking out her first Reanimated. Most citizens now grow up learning about them but never see them, and those on the Citizens Defence Patrol love to tell stories of the pitiful skeletal creatures that still stumble around sometimes outside of the Borders. But our citizens all know what they are and they understand that destroying them is a mercy to those individuals the creatures once were. Senna's description of someone who experienced giving that mercy to a personal loved one as the world fell apart is providing our societal historians and mental health professionals a wonderful insight into the changing social psyche that developed during the Necrotic Plague._

...

April 9

10:26 am (Mountain Standard Time)

I know I said that I'd be back as soon as we saw what the disturbance with James's truck was, but things got incredibly hectic after that, so I really didn't have time (and later heart) to write down the chain of events. Even now it's incredibly hard to find the words to explain everything that's happened, but I can't just skip the events of the last 24 hours. That would be too much like pretending it didn't happen, and not only would that be an insult to all the dead; that sort of thinking could be an incredibly dangerous habit to fall into. Still though, it's been so surreal that I sometimes have trouble realizing that it all really happened.

Anyway, I suppose it will be easiest just to start where I left off. James had just pulled out of the convoy and onto the shoulder, so the rest of us pulled off and walked back toward his truck too see what was wrong. It's funny actually, odd details stick out to me from that point. I remember jogging toward where James had pulled his daughters out of the truck and thinking of the reports from France, where patients were reported as going into a "death-like coma" before waking up and violently attacking hospital staff. I remember that Josh was holding little Daisy, while Rose and Lilly huddled around him, and Rose was crying and screaming about how "Mama" suddenly popped up against the window between the cab and the bed and grabbed at little Daisy. There's a flash of Becka herding the girls away from the truck as I focused on Kyle going for the hatch of the tailgate and starting to lower it.

Then it's like a switch goes on, and I can remember every detail in burning clarity. The terror that slammed down my spine was like ice; and the burn in my throat as I released a desperate and horrified scream of "NO!" stung even as I took off running towards Kyle. I remember Teddy running after me within a second, and James overtaking us both a second after that.

I remember in excruciating, horrifying detail the look on Kyle's face as Stephanie tumbled over the edge of the truck bed and rolled on top of him. I remember her rasping growls, the awful sound of his stomach as she ripped it open, and the even more terrible sound of his screams. The worst bit was the look on his face as he bled out. The horrible pain he was in before he was gone. It happened so fast, and yet it seems now like a million years passed before time suddenly sped up again.

Teddy shot at her. He was the quickest to react of all of us, but once he moved it was like I was on autopilot. I saw how his shots were hitting her chest, and how she turned to advance on him instead. I turned to Josh and saw him standing there like he'd been frozen in stone, with his gun in his belt loop and his hands by his sides, so I jumped on him. I snatched his gun from his belt and turned, I sighted on the shell of Stephanie, and I took her down with one shot between the eyes.

That sounds way more badass than it really was. Truthfully I went numb. It was almost like watching someone else, except I can remember each action and coldly logical thought as if they were being projected on an inner screen. There was a vague feeling of disgust for the thing that had stolen the image of Stephanie, and a spike of rage when I heard another hoarse growl. I turned and saw Kyle with his stomach gaping open and his arms reaching for my leg as his jaws reached for me, and for a moment the sheer _rage_ was suffocating. So I lifted the gun and put a single bullet between his eyes also.

After that, everything went kind of hazy. I remember someone making a horrible screeching noise as Teddy took the gun from my hand, and I remember being warm when someone that wasn't Teddy wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and handed me a shot of whiskey. I remember watching as William, Brian, and Teddy dug a pair of graves; and later as Jared spoke softly over the two mounds. I remember leaving those two graves behind as the group slowly started up our painful trek yet again.

I zoned out for awhile, until I eventually came back to the real world curled up in a pile of sleeping bags on the floor behind Teddy's seat with the group gathered around a picnic table at another scenic overlook outside the bus. Once I managed to get moving around and stumbled outside, Teddy told me I'd been in a state of shock and had been out of it for about 5 hours. The group had detoured around Colorado Springs, and was almost to the highway that would start taking us into the mountains. I had apparently missed three more encounters with the undead, as wrecks and seemingly abandoned cars yielded stumbling monsters. Thankfully the group didn't slow down or stop, but I can't help but feel bad for the next person to come along and have to deal with them.

This had everyone worried about what we would face as we went through the last major town before we left the populated areas entirely and made our way toward the little strip of wilderness that would become our sanctuary. If the little country roads we were already traveling contained zombies, what was going on along the main highways and interstates? Adding to the concern was the fact that the final town, Pagosa Springs, was a popular tourist destination and a bustling rural city. There had been nothing on the radio since before we had stopped for James, so we'd be going in blind if we went in at all.

Further complicating matters, the only way for us to get from where we were to where we needed to be was to drive straight through the middle of town. We could take a back road to within half a mile of the city center and pick up another not a mile outside of town, but it we would still have to traverse the nearly 2 miles down the main road in the heart of the city center. There were no productive turn offs, so if we committed it would be an all or nothing venture without a doubt. With the gas supply running low, and the closest detour adding nearly 200 miles to our trip, we really had no option but to go for it and hope for the best while planning for the worst.

We made sure everyone except for Daisy and Rose had a weapon and knew how to use it (Lilly, at 14, was deemed responsible enough to carry a small handgun), along with enough ammunition to ensure nobody ran out. It was also decided that if possible, the group wouldn't stop and would just charge through as best we could. We tried to think our way through every scenario and plan for it. If we couldn't go around, we'd just get through as fast as possible.

It was worse than we could have dreamed. We saw the smoke rising as we drew closer, which should have warned us off I suppose, but we were determined to get through (and really I don't think we had any other options). Turning onto the main highway through the town, we caught the awful stench within minutes, but we were fully committed at that point, the point of no return had come and gone when we got on the tight street. We rounded a final curve and discovered devastation.

The once idyllic town burned around us, smoke heavy in the air. The river was bloated with bodies and stained an awful reddish brown, and we could see the town's famous hot springs on the other side. Zombies cluttered it, shuffling to and fro on the paved courtyard and crammed into the pools, and more were dotted here and there along the foot bridge leading across to the once serene attraction. More of them shambled around on the road that stretched out before us, a landscape of twisted and abandoned cars and shattered store windows.

Getting through quickly was not going to be an option, not with all the debris in the road forcing the careful way Teddy was having to weave between the cars and grasping corpses. It was obvious that those behind us grasped the same fact, because in no time at all shots were ringing out and zombies fell with bullets in their eyes. There was a vicious, victorious, surge of joy. These things can die, they can be taken down! The hope from that thought was huge and beautiful, until I saw the way every head in the spa across the river had turned, and all those eyes stared at us. As one, all the zombies began to stumble toward the river, their gazes never wavering from our moving vehicles as we picked our way through the town. Not the best way to find out that loud noises apparently attract the damn things.

We turned the next curve in the road and had to stop dead as we faced a mob of hundreds, all growling and reaching for the bus. Teddy managed to punch us through the first group of them, and yelled at me to take our guns and ammo, and go up through the escape hatch to the roof and tell the others to stay close. It seemed like it took me years to get the hatch open, but then I was on top of the roof and waving frantically to Patty and Richard who were behind us. Richard stuck his head through their own sunroof and then turned to pass the message down the line. There was a lot of hand-waving and yelling, and I could see how excited the zombies were getting as we moved through their midst slowly. Finally convinced that everyone understood to stick close no matter what, I turned my attention to the corpses that were starting to pile up and block the bus. After dropping my ammo once due to uncontrollable shivering, I began shooting at the zombies that blocked the bus and other vehicles. Thankfully I'm a halfway decent shot with a handgun, so I at least didn't waste too many bullets.

Richard started screaming at me to bang on the sides of the bus and get their attention. I wasted probably half a minute trying to understand why before he got it across that dropping bodies in front of the vehicles just further blocked the road. That's how I found myself hanging off the side of our back deck, my feet tied to the cargo bar with a bungee, screaming and shooting at anything that came at me. I literally peed my pants from pure terror, but I can't deny that it worked. I sighted on zombie after zombie as best I could upside down, while Cole and Richard took down any that they could get a clear sight on without hitting me. It was sheer pandemonium, with zombies growling and snarling at me, people screaming in the other cars, the dogs barking in the bus, and the horses screaming and bucking as they panicked in the trailer. Once I ran out of bullets, I dragged myself back up to the top of the bus just in time to see Teddy punch the bus through a final line of zombies and speed away from the mob.

Somehow we all made it through, but what we faced on the other side of the mob was no less appalling, though in a very different way. The town was ruined. Bodies scattered the roads and sidewalks, torn apart and picked clean. Those with the heads still intact reached feebly for us as we drove slowly through the remains of a once lovely little mountain city, until finally we turned off into the soothing green of the forest. It seemed like the longest 2 minutes of my life, which is saying something considering just how many times I've said that to myself in the past few days. There always seems to be something new and more horrible just waiting around the corner...

No amount of reading or video clips can prepare you for seeing civilization's frailty with your own eyes. The unfettered _stench_ of corpses torn apart and left to bake in the sun, the thick indescribable taste of death that coated every breath you took, the all encompassing pity as we picked our way through the burned out shell of thousands of people's hopes and dreams; followed by the tangible silence as we drove away from what we had witnessed. I don't know about the other cars, but as we made our way through the endless warren of mountain roads, Teddy and I didn't say a word.

We arrived to the warehouse pretty close to dark, and I have to say reactions were much better than I expected. It's not much, but after seeing how bad things have gotten over the last few days everyone seems to have a much greater appreciation for the solitude of the location. Obviously nobody is pleased about the Spartan interior, but that can be fixed as we have time, and there's plenty of space for everyone right now. Things might get more cramped as other parts of the family make their way here, but for now I think we're all just happy to have a safe place to start making a home for however long we need it.

The group was pretty efficient, we unloaded the bus first so that Gertrude and Grandma could use it's kitchen to make everyone dinner while a makeshift sleeping area was put together. It's still pretty cold here, with a few inches of snow lurking in shady spots, so the flues of the bus's little stove and the big fireplace were checked and plenty of wood brought in from the pile. Surprisingly there's still power and running water, so we turned the heat on as well to help warm this big old building as quickly as possible.

Teddy and I insisted that Grandma and Jared and Gertrude sleep on the bus, as it has 2 queen beds and is the best insulated with a little wood burning stove to heat it. So we got to experience first-hand just how incredibly cold and drafty this monstrosity can be last night. Needless to say, that's something that's going to need addressed soon if we don't want everyone to get sick from the bad conditions. Even with all the mattresses from the bus down in one spot, and everyone piled together under a pile of blankets and a giant top cover of 6 big sleeping bags zipped together, I know we were all still a little cold through the night. Not to mention we're going to all want our own space to call our own as this continues.

That being said, there's a lot of potential to this big building. Jared, William, and James are giving it a more in-depth look through right now; although last night they agreed that it shouldn't be too hard to augment the walls and help insulate the building with the abundance of lumber around the area. With the bags of concrete and some of the other construction materials I know we have in the storage room, we can hopefully even make some add-ons for additional comfort for everyone after we do some fortification work. Maybe a bath house or something could be attached with some bathing pools, we're sure to stay healthier if we keep clean and warm. But that's getting the cart a little ahead of the horse I think.

Speaking of horses, Dolly and Arrow so far seem fairly unperturbed by their change of scenery. They're currently in a collapsible pen that Becka brought with her, but that's another thing we'll need to build up soon. With our gas supply largely gone, the horses are currently our most reliable form of transportation, not that we're going anywhere at the moment.

So many things to settle, so many jobs to get done, it's slightly overwhelming. Teddy and I haven't even taken everyone down into the supply room to see what's down there yet. A lot of which we don't even fully know, as I don't think we've ever done a complete inventory except on the foodstuffs. We always just brought loads of staple food out when we came for our twice-yearly camping trips, then scoured the closer town's stores and auctions for anything useful that was cheap enough. We actually bought a lot of things in Pagosa Springs when I think on it, since we went to the hot springs whenever we got the chance.

Anyway, there's supposed to be a group meeting start as soon as our construction experts get done looking over the structure and this morning clean-up detail finishes the dishes. I guess we'll start addressing the multitude of issues facing all of us then, including fortifying our position and handling an inventory. . Honestly, I'm pretty okay with throwing myself into working to get this place up to snuff. It'll help distract me from everything else that's happened lately. Things are pretty tense between James and I right now, so hopefully we don't wind up working closely for a few days, until we've both had time to work our way through what happened with Stephanie and Kyle.

Well.

I'll give you an update again soon, I promise.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note ~ Totally don't make ANY money off this. I really wish TWD was mine, but it's sadly not...  
**_

 _ **I've decided that other than the necessary disclaimer, I'm going to put the A/N's at the bottom of the chapters.**_

...

 _A Note From The Publisher :_

 _Senna's description of her group's council is highly reminiscent to how the city of Spokane, in our Southern District, arranged their governance after the locals banded together and retook the city in 2028. It is interesting to see the same dynamic in such a small group, and had lead to some interesting academic debates in the Royal University's hallowed halls on whether or not this could be the "ideal" form of local governance. There are a number of instances of this method being successfully adopted in many surviving communities during the Necrotic Plague, though until this journal's release it was thought that only preexisting townships had organized in this way. Social Psychologists have written a number of dissertations on the theory that all this method of governance needs to succeed is the idea itself and a "community mindset", which is described as being "an outlook on life that is held by a group of like-minded people with shared experience, which focuses on the well-being of all members of that group". Local townships, religious communities, and close knit families (such as Senna's) are all examples that are frequently noted to be"community minded.  
_

...

April 9

10:34 pm (Mountain Standard Time)

Well. Today was certainly… Something.

We started the day with what I shall politely refer to as a "community meeting", but which was more accurately a "bloody buggering nightmare" where I was treated to grown adults acting like over-tired toddlers.

I guess the reality of the situation sunk in for everyone last night, now that they've had some time to process the devastation of Pagosa Springs, and their focus is shifting to how we're going to survive in the here and now. Apparently there was some talking amongst differing groups last night that Teddy and I missed out on, but no sooner did we sit down then demands started coming from all corners for various projects to be started. Some people wanted to plant a garden as soon as possible, others thought we should put all available backs to fortifying the property, there were a few people who thought we should dig sanitation trenches first, and still others who wanted to establish a night patrol first thing. It was bedlam.

We eventually had to stop proceedings entirely while Richard, Jared, Teddy, and I decided on a set of rules for how meetings were to be run. We hashed out a fairly decent system while everyone else split up for different chores such as making lunch, tending the horses, or stoking our various fires.

We quickly determined that as nice as it would be, popular vote would just not be feasible with so many important decisions to be made. We decided on a "town council" sort of deal, where 4 people would be nominated and voted on by the group to be the representative council that made the tough choices. If there was a tie, then the vote would go to the group as a whole. Future Meetings will be held on a daily basis at the end of the day, at 8pm. Any member of the community may bring an issue up to be discussed, and then others are allowed to stand and make any concerns or opinions known. From there, after hearing all sides of the argument, the council will make the ultimate decision.

This solution went over really well with the group as a whole. Surprisingly, it took very little time to determine the council members. Even more surprisingly, Teddy and I both were unanimous picks. Richard was the first to stand up and name both of us, which about sent me into a heart attack! He made the argument that we had been the only ones who prepared for any sort of societal collapse, and furthermore did it with the idea of having a safe space for as much of the family as would come. We were "future thinkers" whose insights would be "valuable" on the council. Then everyone was yelling "seconded" all at the same time. It was… overwhelming.

I'm still not really sure how I feel about that actually. I always figured we'd have the veto for anything too outrageous, based on the fact of the whole "our land" bit; but I never EVER expected we'd be placed in any sort of leadership roles because of our somewhat lackluster (in hindsight) preparations. I mean we've always been the odd ducks of our families, so we're used to being treated a little bit like kids. Now it's a really odd feeling to have Teddy's parents and grandparents looking to us for answers and ideas about how to go forward. In retrospect, I really should have seen how people's gratitude could lean in that direction, but on a gut level, it just feels _wrong_.

Anyway after that personal bombshell, Richard was nominated based on his quick thinking and notoriously fair minded ideology (plus I think the incident with the crazy gas station owner really cemented his reputation). Then, after a fierce debate between Kyle (who supported Jared) and Grandma (who supported Becka), Becka took the final nomination based on her well known practicality and ability to coordinate things. .

That was where it got really frustrating. For all that we were hoping to focus immediately on improving our little compound, we quickly realized that we had no idea of the exact extent of our available resources. While Teddy and I had been really good about buying things to put into the stash, we weren't so hot on actually documenting our additions. Which led to a minor meltdown on the part of some of our august number, who feared that we were going to run out of everything within weeks. A quick trip down the stairs to show the group at large just how huge that basement is (and just how full) was enough to calm that panic at least.

So before we could do anything else as far as planning for things like gardens and building projects, we needed to do an inventory of everything at our disposal. We would also need to come up with some way to distribute goods to different people. After some … spirited… debates on the subject, it was decided that we would dedicate one of the new council members (guess who got "lucky" and drew that straw?) to head a group focused on setting up an inventory and distribution system.

It was decided, after much concern was expressed about our defences, that everyone else would work on defenses. As we went through the debates, we ultimately came to the conclusion that the best way to utilize our labor forces was to have Pam, Trudy, Elizabeth, and Tara working with me to deal with organizing the stash; while Grandma and Gertrude would watch the girls (with Lilly and Gertrude carrying pistols as a precaution), and all the men plus Becka and Petra would focus on building our defences up. My team was repeatedly admonished to put all construction materials found out for the defence team as soon as we found them. Not that it was a bad idea, we just didn't really need to be reminded thirty times… (Grumble grumble…)

It was also decided that everyone should go armed in some way. Guns have been distributed amongst those who know how to use them, and we made sure that everyone (excluding Rose, Daisy and Robbie, as 4 and 2 are probably a little young even in these conditions) had at least a pocket knife on their persons. Once we know just how much ammo and what other weapons we have, I'm sure things will change up some, but for now we feel mostly safe with the current distribution. Once the first fence goes up, I'm sure we'll all feel a little bit safer; but right now there's just this nagging sensation going up my spine that there could be infected hikers wandering around. I don't think I'm alone in that feeling either...

Anyway, by the time all of this got sorted, it was nearly 3. We decided to have a hot dog roast for dinner after the sun went down so that we could maximize what was left of the work day and got to it. It took me a little while to decide how best to move things out of the basement, and I had to pause to allow my team to exclaim over the hidden "tunnel" that leads to the outside from the lower level, but I ultimately figured it would be best to sort everything into like piles and then just go from there.

Once we actually started unloading things into the open however, I realized just how much of a mess we're going to have to deal with. Teddy and I have just been putting stuff wherever it would fit when we've come up on supply hunting trips, so there are stacks of boxes and other items thrown together all higgledy piggledy, with the only clear walkway going around one wall back to the food. Not that the food is sorted in any way, it's all just stacked haphazardly from where we would unload things and just add the new stuff to the prior stack. It's going to take us at least 4-5 days of nonstop effort just to get things unloaded and sorted into piles of similar items. From there we still face the daunting task of cataloguing all of it plus coming up with a system to ensure that everyone gets equal access to what they need.

There's some really useful (and sometimes random) things stockpiled in boxes down here. Such as an entire vacu-sealed crate of condoms and another of assorted fishing knives. Plus three huge pallets of cement (which must have been one of Teddy's scores because I certainly don't remember buying it) and dozens of rolls of 10 foot chain-link fencing and assorted poles. Needless to say, the defence team was excited to see that particular find.

We didn't even touch the bulk of the food, as it is we're barely a quarter sorted and I'm really hoping the last forecast we got three days ago was accurate when it said the next few nights should be clear. Because we have supplies scattered all over the parking area, and more are sure to follow as we try to sift through the masses of stuff and make heads or tails of it. It would be extremely inconvenient for me if it rains...

Although I was very happy to see that I had underestimated our off-grid power capabilities. We have THREE portable water mills, plus SIX collapsible solar/wind sets, three boxes of miscellaneous solar cells, four inverters, and two decent sized crates of deep cell storage batteries ready to be charged. So maybe we'll be able to support the two hot water heaters I spotted against one of the walls on a permanent basis. I know we also have a few of those stationary bike rigs that generates power based on pedalling, and we've got a number of mountain bikes that we accumulated. Probably will be a good option in winter, when we're all cooped up due to snow, now that I think about it. I'll need to make a note of that to go into the protocol book that I can already tell we'll need to write out alongside the inventory book…

The defence team got a lot done for five measly hours of work time. Whenever I glanced at their progress throughout the day, I could see them swarming like bees. They got the poles set into concrete for a chain link fence surrounding our building and as much of the immediate area as possible (Teddy said they tried to plan for additional structures and vehicles). According to Jared, they'll be able to put up the chain link in the morning and then move on to surrounding the fence with whatever defences people can think up. He thinks they'll be ready to consider building a second, bigger wall 20 feet out from the first one in a few weeks. He said with the abundance of lumber around, that we'd have everything we could need, especially since one of the books I found (from one of the local state parks back home) detailed how colonial fort walls were constructed.

Just the chain link fence is enough to protect us from the zombies, we saw yesterday how easy they are to kill if you can get them into a position where they can't get at you. Underscoring all of our defencive preparations is the ongoing fear of "what if we get found by other people?". Nobody said anything, but all the ideas I heard for defense were geared toward humans, not the undead. I think that's something that should be addressed tomorrow at the next meeting, maybe we can get a plan of action ready in case other people do stumble across us. There's no guarantee that they would be hostile, and I don't know that I could turn a family with children away to face starvation or a brutal death torn apart by zombies.

I know it's probably the attention going to my head, but I keep thinking about what projects I want to focus on getting done on the council. Once we get the urgent things dealt with, we can then focus on things like organizing a planting field and hunting excursions. We'll definitely need to get a job roster set up, and have each person a job that they're in charge of. With so many different skill sets, and things like security and possibly supply runs to think about, we'll need to work something out if we ever want to achieve some semblance of normalcy here. I for one think that I'm going to support one of the ideas I heard earlier for a community bath house to be attached to the main warehouse, where even in the winter we could stay clean and healthy. It would be marvelously beneficial to our mental health and help to prevent the cabin fever that I'm sure is going to be a problem come the snows. Plus, after a full day of manual labor, a soak in a hot tub sounds like just the way to sooth tired muscles!

I do have to say though, everyone has been taking things much better than I really expected them to. Other than our initial chaos at the start of the council meeting, the group has been calm and focused on getting as much work done as efficiently as possible. I heard plans being tossed around one of the fires earlier, many of which seemed increasingly improbable until I noticed the bottle of Jack making the rounds. The other two fires (we couldn't fit everyone around one, not if we wanted to all eat in a timely manner) were both calm as the people around them listened to Teddy and Brian play their guitars while other people took turns singing different songs. Grandma even sang an old song she learned from her mother, about a miner's wife watching her husband leave for work and wondering if "this day's the one the shaft gives in". It was haunting to be honest, and I know it got me thinking about a lot of things.

People have had it hard before, for all of human history, and they haven't given up or run around in a panic. They adapted and moved on with their lives, maybe wrote a few songs to ease the pain, and survived. Tough times don't break people unless we let them, and it's our attitude and how we deal with the terrifying and horrific things that sets the tone for everything else. I think we really need to focus on that idea, and remind each other that we still have a lot of good things in our lives to be thankful for.

We did manage to get 20 people, four of them children and three elderly, across the country in the face of the zombie apocalypse. We also made it to a safe place with food, shelter, and even a few amenities; where we can make a life for however long we need to. We've faced down the undead and somehow come through to our "promised land". If we can focus on protecting what we have here and now, instead of the lives that we all left behind or the horrific things that we saw and experienced getting here, I think we can survive anything this new world will throw at us. Admittedly, I think all the work we're doing is helping most of the group process the events of the last week.

Yet for all that, all I've felt today is this sucking _pain_ in my chest. Even when I'm breathing fully, it's like I can't catch a single breath... I'm not a fool, I've known loss and grief before, but this is so different from anything that came before. So much bigger, like nothing could ever fill the hole back in, and so real that I'm mildly surprised every time I look down and see my own intact torso. I guess it's because every time I've lost before, it was _normal_. It's _normal_ for people to die and for their loved ones that stay behind to grieve and try to fill the hole that a person left in their life. But what are we supposed to do when what we lost is so much _more_ than anything we've ever lost before.

Our whole world is gone. Nothing is ever going to be the same again, even if the government manages to bring the tatters of the country back together after this is all over. We watched our entire _lives,_ everything that ever made us who and what we are, fall to pieces in just under a week. How are we supposed to come back from that? What do we fill that hole with?

I mean yeah we've got what we need to survive for a year or two, and if that many people are dead in town then we can probably find some abandoned homes to reinforce our own supplies, but what about the children? Lilly's 14, she's old enough to understand what's happened, and she's already been trying to step up and help however she can. Her childhood is effectively over now, it's been stolen from her by the end of the world, and none of us can give it back. Daisy, Rose, and Roberta are all too little to really understand what's going on (though Rose at 4 may remember a good bit of how everything fell apart), but they won't have anything like a normal life. We've got a pretty decent library for the end of the world, so we can educate them at least, but how do we keep them healthy and happy? They've all lost their mothers, though Roberta's died before the current crisis; how do we address that? How do we address assigning them chores and teaching them how to be safe in this world?

James is definitely not being much help with those questions right now. I've done my best to stay well away from him, considering I shot his wife and father yesterday, but he didn't attack me so I don't think our relationship could be going much better. But he's withdrawn into himself, Teddy said he hasn't talked to anyone all day, and the most interaction he showed was sitting with his daughters during dinner last night. Jared's going to try to talk to him tomorrow, but Teddy thinks there's a possibility that we'll need to keep a suicide watch on him. Maybe we could assign him to guard Grandma, Gertie, and the girls. That would maybe help us keep Lilly from acting as her sister's 24/7 guard, though she might not handle inactivity so well. Perhaps we could let her work with one of the teams, it would give her something productive to do to keep her mind busy. It's certainly been helping me to ignore the sucking despair that seems to have found permanent residence in my chest.

Well, on that note I think I'm going to leave things here for tonight. It's been a hectic day, and I've got to get up early for my turn at kitchen duty.

...

 _ **Author's Note (Main)~  
**_

 _ **I apologize to my readers for the dreadful delay in updates. I know it's been awhile, but unfortunately RL got in the way of my writing time a bit. I currently run a start-up business, so when it gets busy there's no one to do the work but me (regardless of what I might wish sometimes!).**_

 _ **That being said, never fear that I'll vanish and abandon this story. I hate authors who do that, it's my pet peeve, and I respect my readers too much to do the same to them. If I ever do need to put this story on hiatus, I'll notify you guys in an update; not that I expect that to happen. I may just be slow sometimes.  
**_

 _ **Please remember to review, it really helps me to know if people like the direction the story is going. I would also REALLY appreciate any constructive criticism, this is the first story I've written in almost a decade, so I'm sure I'm rusty.**_


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